Yes, it's that time of year again! It's parent/teacher conference time! Now that my conferences have come and gone, I wanted to pop in and share a little bit about how my conferences went this year. To do that, I'm linking up with Ashley and Angie in their #2getherwearebetter link up!
For starters, at my school we use Sign-Up Genius to schedule conferences. If you haven't tried Sign-Up Genius yet, you better get on that! It is seriously super easy and it can be used for more than just conferences. In the past I've used Sign-Up Genius to organize class parties, Mystery Readers, and supply donations. What I love most about using Sign-Up Genius for conferences is that it puts the responsibility of scheduling conferences in the hands of the parents. All you do as a teacher is set your dates and times. Like I said, super easy right?! For parents that did not sign-up online, I sent home a conference reminder form with a date/time slot that I had available.
To prepare for conferences, along with completing report cards, I also sat down to write individual comments on each one of my kiddos. I made one copy of the comments form for my parents and one for myself. This way parents have a record of what was discussed at conferences and I can stay on track with the information I want to share. Our conferences are only twenty minutes, so I have to make sure I'm spending that time wisely!
I also had my kiddos complete a self-evaluation that I gave to their parents at the conference. I always find it so interesting to read what my kids think of their performance in school! It usually matches up with what I think too!
As parents arrived, they saw a table set up outside my classroom with mints, student work, and a class book.
It is very important to me to create a warm and welcoming environment. To do this, I used my lamps for soft lighting and I also gave parents a small bottle of water.
Making everything you need for conferences easily accessible is a must! I like to keep my student data binder close by just in case I need to pull out specific work samples to address a concern or to answer a question. It always helps to be prepared!
If you would like any of the forms/printables pictured, you can grab those here. You can grab my editable comments form here.
Overall, conferences went well! It also doesn't hurt that our PTSA caters lunch for us during conference week!
Have you had conferences yet? If so, how did they go?
